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Friday, June 15, 2018

Mako Miyasuzu, Sohei

My friend Alex of the Busan Gamers, now living Stateside, got in on my online Chanbara playtest game. He created a female Bushi/Sohei named Mako Miyasuzu. She's the next character I want to highlight from Chanbara because there ended up being a lot of emergent world-building from his character creation that I added into the campaign, and it allowed me to tie together several different types of PC that otherwise might not have had any story-relevant reasons for adventuring together.

First of all, here's Mako's description in Alex's own words:

Mako Miyasuzu is the last remaining member of the Miyasuzu family of the
noble Akugiri clan. Seven years ago, on the fall equinox, the day that
the walls between the worlds of the oni and akuma are closest to the
world of man, the day that every family responsible for a Shrine of the
Silver Bell must perform the ceremony to keep the walls strong for
another year, Mako lost her family.

Mako does not know exactly what happened. She heard screams of warning,
and her grandfather bundled her up and hid her under the floorboards.
From her hiding place, she saw figures, perhaps humans in black, perhaps
oni or akuma for some seemed to be wreathed in fire, others in
unnatural blackness. Mako hates herself for cowering, listening to the
beasts slaughter her family, the screams of her sister, the defiant
cursing of my grandfather, the splintering crash as the bell her family
was pledged to tend and defend was stolen.

For weeks Mako stayed at the shrine, trying to rebuild it, training
herself in the manner her family had, torn between rage and sadness.
Eventually, she was found by some pilgrims who took her to her great
uncle, Lord Suzaku Akugiri. Mako was raised in the military manner of
the Akugiri, but never forsook or forgot the pledge she made to herself
every minute of every day she stood on that mountain in the ruins of her
family's shrine. She would find whoever murdered her family. She would
return the bell to the shrine. She would deliver the curses of her
grandfather, to drive home into the bellies of those beasts the swords
of her father and mother.

Mako's stats are a bit out of date - a few things were modified in the final published book, but here's her character sheet:

Her allegiances developed through conversation between Alex and myself. He came up with the background above in a more skeletal form. I added in a few details to tie it to my Enzan Province setting. I had pulled some (very derivative in most cases) organizations from a setting I developed back in the 3E OA days (which I ran with my old Yamanashi Group). One of them was the Azuma Shinobi, based on the 'good guy' ninja from the Tenchu video games.

I'd listed some of these organizations as ideas for the players. They could join one if they liked, and help me flesh it out more, or create their own using the ideas for inspiration. Alex and two other players liked the description of Azuma Shinobi, and we negotiated how his demon-hunting shrine protectress could also be part of a ninja clan. We must have emailed or Skyped the details, because they're not on the RPOL game and I don't remember exactly how we discussed it working out that way, but it made sense at the time.The mission the Azuma gave Mako at the start was to serve as bodyguard to the two dedicated Shinobi characters.

Since two other characters were tied to the biggest local shrine (the Mahotsukai/soryo daughter of the shrine-keeper, and the Mahotsukai/onmyoji protege of the shrine-keeper's old friend), we worked Mako's quest to retrieve the family's Silver Bell as an angle to tie her in as well. The shrine-keeper had some limited information about the bell, and was helping Mako piece together clues to its whereabouts. (Conveniently, the clues led to the adventure location...)

The shrine-keeper's daughter (I'll post her eventually) and another of the Azuma Shinobi characters both also had allegiance to the daimyo, so I was able to bring in a third set of characters. In that way, I brought them all together despite varied allegiances and varied purposes into a party that was prepared to explore the Ghost Castle Hasegawa.

While we never ended up completing Ghost Castle Hasegawa before my dissertation killed the game, I did work up plans for the next adventure to be about hunting down the oni/akuma who stole the bell. Alas, it never got past the idea stage.

Fun fact: Alex had Mako only speak in haiku form. He'd told me he would do that, but not any of the other players. The first time he introduced himself, several other players also decided to answer his poetry with their own. It was a lot of fun for me to read the threads they were creating.

If reading about this character made you think "That sounds like fun!" then check out Chanbara. You can make your own crazy poetry-spouting ninja/warrior monk, or a drunken calligraphy-obsessed samurai, or a hermit master of the war-fan (always underestimated in combat until the war-fan clocks you upside the head), or a scholarly spy who uses brains and guile to infiltrate enemy camps, or hundreds...probably thousands...of other character types.

Chanbara is for sale in pdf for $10, print (softcover, full color) for $20, or print/pdf combo also for $20. Exclusively through DrivethruRPG.com.